My Favorite Sustainable Design and Strategy Books
Books to Inspire Sustainable Graphic and Web Design
As a brand and web designer, I spend more time behind a screen than I’d like to admit. So often we get lost down the rabbit hole that is the internet that we forget how much inspiration we’re able to draw from good old-fashioned books!
Today I’m sharing my top 5 favorite reads that have inspired my recent client work, my passion for continuing my knowledge around green, eco-friendly design and my overall approach to brand strategy.
Books on Design and Brand Strategy
The Designer’s Dictionary of Color by Sean Adams is my most used book when it comes to the research phase of all of my client projects. It groups the most widely used colors into four categories: warm, cool, neutral and speciality. It reviews the history and origin of each color, as well as the emotions and symbolic meanings of how it’s been used in design work. I absolutely love getting lost in this book every time I am working through a client’s color palette for their branding. Even know I have read and referenced the same pages and colors for several projects, they seem to spark my imagination when I see examples of how the color has been applied and used out in the world.
The Designer's Dictionary of Type
A sibling to the Dictionary of Color, this book has a similar layout, but is entirely focused on the history of typefaces and fonts. There is SO much behind the aesthetics of the types of fonts that we choose to work with as designers or in our brand’s marketing. I even love exploring the context behind some of the most popular typefaces that we see every day—it’s so interesting to learn how and why they were originally designed as well as why their popularity has evolved!
Building a Brand Story - I recommend this book to all business owners who are working to build their brand. It focuses on storytelling as the approach to marketing rather than traditional methods used in advertising and mainstream communications.
We’ve all been told what should be on our websites and on all marketing material, but I’ve found from experience that mission statements and resumé-type biographies, do nothing when it comes to connecting on an emotional level with your audience. His framework allowed me to rethink my approach and connect with my clients on an emotional level to resolve their biggest paint points.
Books on Sustainable Design
Sustainable Web Design by Tom Greenwood. OMG Where do I even start!? This book literally changed my mission and trajectory of my business. It was a pivotal moment when I recently discovered how much of an impact that the websites that we build and manage affect our planet. The book opens with the alarming statistic: If the Internet were a country, it would be the 7th most polluting county on the planet. This is a shorter read that defines the aspects of a low emissions website and provides a step by step guide to going green with your web design approach and practices
This book was also a game changer for me too, even know I am aware that branding is deeply rooted in uncovering and connecting with your target audience on an emotional level. Walter provides guidance for the principles of designing for humans, and addresses newer challenges that have emerged for web professionals tasked with reaching an ever-shifting audience.
If you’ve read any of these and would like to share something you learned or plan to read one or all of these, let me know your favorite findings in the comments below! I would also love to hear what other books I should add to my ever-growing list! :)
And that’s the scoop for now!
Michelle